Searching for a signal, dropped calls and poor internet connections are on the way out in Chester as the city welcomes increased mobile capacity and coverage in the New Year.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has secured an agreement in principle for a network of small cells to be installed across the city centre by Ontix. The first provider to offer the increased mobile coverage in the City Centre will be Virgin Media O2. The Council is also talking with Vodafone, and their network is expected to follow.

• The data-hungry user base of Japan’s newest mobile operator continues to grow
• One of Rakuten Mobile’s current areas of focus is greater energy efficiency
• It is putting its RAN intelligent controller (RIC) to work next year as part of a broader campaign to reduce power consumption by up to 20% 

As Japan’s newest telco, Rakuten Mobile, continues to grow its customer base and network data traffic, it is introducing multiple green network initiatives, including the commercial deployment of its RAN intelligent controller (RIC) platform, that it hopes will le

Quickline’s fast and reliable full-fibre broadband is now live and bringing high-speed connectivity to rural communities across West Yorkshire, thanks to the government’s Project Gigabit.

Homes and businesses in villages like Streethouse and New Sharlston, near Wakefield, and Emley and Upper Cumberworth, near Huddersfield, now have access to gigabit-capable broadband.

So far around 600 premises in these areas can now get connected through Project Gigabit funding and another 1,100 premises have gained access through Quickline’s commercial build.

Worldwide spending on telecommunications and pay TV services will reach $1,544 billion in 2024, representing an increase of 2.4% year-on-year, according to the Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker published by International Data Corporation (IDC). The latest prediction is 1.0 percentage points higher than the version published in the May edition of IDC's Tracker. If that forecast becomes reality, the above-mentioned annual growth rate would be the highest recorded in the last twelve years.

On 15 November, the Federated Telecoms Hubs (FTH) invited academia and industry to a symposium in London. 
It was an opportunity to hear from each of the four hubs that make up FTH and understand their ambitious collective goals to better drive the gap between telecoms R&D and translation to commercialisation.

Here, UKTIN shares its highlights.

Proceedings began with keynotes from Catherine Page OBE, Deputy Director, Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, and Glenn Goodall, Head of ICT Research Portfolio, UKRI EPSRC. 

The credit ratings agency places the telecom sector in ‘very high’ category for cyber risk, up from ‘high’ two years previously

Increased digitalisation and weak risk-mitigation are among the contributory factors    

Recently reported data security breaches at AT&T, Optus and T-Mobile US “underscore” the heightened security risk assessment, according to Moody’s

The latest news regarding breaches of US telco networks by Chinese hackers gives credence to the reassessment by the Moody’s team  

T-Mobile has confirmed a significant cyber attack allegedly carried out by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, marking the latest in a series of breaches targeting major telecom providers globally.

The breach was disclosed on November 16, and according to initial investigations, the attackers gained unauthorised access to the company’s systems, exposing sensitive customer data and internal communications.

Samsung Electronics has inaugurated its new semiconductor research and development facility, NRD-K, in Korea.
The site, which spans 109,000 square metres, is located in Samsung’s Giheung campus, where the company developed the world’s first 64-megabit DRAM chip in the early 90s.

The Japanese government has earmarked ¥10tn ($65bn) of state funding by 2030 to strengthen Japan’s semiconductor and AI chip sector, partly to help secure the country’s supply chains and avoid future global disruptions, and partly to ensure sustainable growth within Japan’s critical semiconductor and technology sectors.

• MasOrange, Telefónica, Vodafone Grupo and the i2CAT research centre have established Europe’s first multi-operator Open Gateway laboratory in Barcelona, a milestone in the telecommunications sector that opens up new opportunities for developers and companies.
• The lab is part of the GSMA-led Open Gateway initiative to transform telecommunications networks into programmable platforms to deliver network capabilities to everyone.

MasOrange, Telefónica, Vodafone Grupo, and the i2CAT research centre have partnered to launch the fi